Home made Gimbal Head (Finished)

Gaz J

Gaz J

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Gary
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I have always tried to find solutions to problems in my photography especially when i need a bit of kit but either cannot find what i want or cannot justify the cost as i will not use it regularly enough. I have therefore made flash brackets, tripod extensions and feet and several other bits and pieces over the years.

This time i've set my sights a little higher. The cost of gimbal heads is pretty high and whilst i would buy one if i had a moderate use for it i also dislike the arca swiss mounts that heads like the wimberley come with. I think that from an engineering point of view the manfrotto type is preferable.

So I emptied out my box of bits and started on my latest and, up to now, most time consuming project of making my own.

Still got to manufacture the lens bracket but thought i would show where i've got to so far. Maybe inspire others to have a go.

Regards to you all.

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My skills at making my own extends to sawing the bottom off a Carex soap dispenser to make a cheap diffuser. This is on another level though. Do you have a background in engineering or fabrication? Would like to see how this all started out step by step.
 
Out of interest cost wise (not taking into account your time of course) does this work out cheaper than buying one retail?
 
At the moment this stands me at approx £50 with another £20 to finish it. It's over engineered with roller and taper roller bearings in the base. The bent tube is the biggest expense as it needs to be done in a mandrel bender. To get it to this stage has taken me 4 hours of work.

I served an apprenticeship as an engineering machinist. Found some exploded drawings of a wimberley mk1 and mk2 on the net and adjusted the design to suit the tools I have available.
 
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Well done, I think things like this!
 
I do like things like this, looks excellent

I know you said you dislike the arca style heads, however one of the primary benefits of such a head on a gimbal is the ability to move the lens forward/backwards in order to achieve good balance. How will you be going about this with your design?
 
All I used for this was a lathe and a ordinary electric drill in a drill stand. I will take it apart over the weekend and post some pics showing the spindles and bearings. The main components are aluminium and the spindles are stainless steel. The internals are very simple although wimberley have a very neat design in the mk2 base that I cannot replicate. When I bought some of the components I bought several so making further ones will pull the cost down a bit.
 
I have a manfrotto lens plate clamp and long lens plate and this will allow me to slide the lens forwards and backwards to achieve perfect balance in exactly the same way as the arca. I just think that the manfrotto version is technically better. Plus I have several of them!

The centre line of the horizontal spindle will pass thorough the centre line of my 500mm which is essential to allow the camera and lens to effectively become weightless once adjusted correctly.
 
Maybe been watching too much Dragon's Den, but are these products legal to replicate in this way?
 
No idea. But given that there are several commercially available for sale that all essentially work in an almost identical manner I would think that unless you infringe on a patent it's not a problem. Essentially this is my own design and there will not be any other head out there like it. I really don't think that wimberley or any other manufacturer are going to worry about an individual making his own.
 
Yeah I'd guess you're right. Keep us updated on the progress it's the most advanced DIY thing I've seen for camera gear.
 
Have taken it apart. Not a great pic but you can get the general idea.

Hopefully will have it done over the next couple of weeks. Just having a little think to make sure ive got the lens bracket design right before I make it.

The biggest problem and something i will rectify in the future ones that i make is that its overengineered. Especially in the base. The load capacity on the bearings is massive. It would break the tripod before the bearings. So by reducing the size of those it will be cheaper and easier to make.

Regards

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That's awesome! I wish I could engineer something like this.
 
Brill! I only wish I had the patience [and the machinery ... and talent ..] to create stuff like this. There are sites dedicated to DIY photo gear, I'll have to think of the names and post up, you should definitely post this up over there.

Best I've done: A cardboard softbox for macro, using a baby wipe as the diffuser held on with a hair bobbin :D - I've tried to make a cardboard grid too for the flash, and it works, just very minimal light getting through.

This here though, is a different class.
 
Very nice. There was a guy local to me that was knocking these out for about £100 last time I spoke to him. He could hardly keep up with demand :)
 
Great work Gaz :clap:


graphilly said:
Very nice. There was a guy local to me that was knocking these out for about £100 last time I spoke to him. He could hardly keep up with demand :)
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My gimbal head should be arriving any day now, from HK, £60 all in :thumbs:
 
�� yes it's very difficult to compete with that. For me it's about the challenge of making it myself. So far I'm quite happy with the way it's turning out. It swivels very smoothly and locks with 1/2 a turn on the knob. Once I get the lens on it I will be able to see if I need to change the wave springs that set the tension. The extra leverage that the lens gives is substantial and what initially seems to be a nice tension turns out too light once the lens is mounted.

A bit of tarting up after that and it should be good to go.
 
Well done Gaz

I think Photography has more than it's fair share of people who are only interested in a particular brand.

Providing it does the job - I think there's far more satisfaction to be had in a project like this.
 
Gaz J said:
�� yes it's very difficult to compete with that. For me it's about the challenge of making it myself. So far I'm quite happy with the way it's turning out. It swivels very smoothly and locks with 1/2 a turn on the knob. Once I get the lens on it I will be able to see if I need to change the wave springs that set the tension. The extra leverage that the lens gives is substantial and what initially seems to be a nice tension turns out too light once the lens is mounted.

A bit of tarting up after that and it should be good to go.
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I quite agree with that, I make my own bits and bobs too. I'm making a new dolly system just now, but it's kind of stalled at the moment.
 
Gaz J said:
�� yes it's very difficult to compete with that. For me it's about the challenge of making it myself. So far I'm quite happy with the way it's turning out. It swivels very smoothly and locks with 1/2 a turn on the knob. Once I get the lens on it I will be able to see if I need to change the wave springs that set the tension. The extra leverage that the lens gives is substantial and what initially seems to be a nice tension turns out too light once the lens is mounted.

A bit of tarting up after that and it should be good to go.
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Totally agree Gaz, I to would enjoy & prefer to make it myself, if I could :thumbs:
 
I had a look at the heads that joe is getting and for the money you cannot fail to be impressed by them. Even thought about modifying one with better bearings etc. But I can't resist having a go myself.

Next on the list for me is a clamp for fitting a ball head or gimbal head to the shelves that you find in bird hides. Using a tripod is so clumsy in them so have got an idea to use one of these quick clamps attached to a column that will be able to adjust for height to get the best position.
 
Gaz J said:
I had a look at the heads that joe is getting and for the money you cannot fail to be impressed by them. Even thought about modifying one with better bearings etc. But I can't resist having a go myself.

Next on the list for me is a clamp for fitting a ball head or gimbal head to the shelves that you find in bird hides. Using a tripod is so clumsy in them so have got an idea to use one of these quick clamps attached to a column that will be able to adjust for height to get the best position.
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Yes, the bearings are generally one of the first things you will notice. That and the locking off - you set up a static shot, lock it off and the poor locking action moves the head. Oh and the slide clamp can just be a bit looser than you would feel 100% safe with.
 
Gaz J said:
I had a look at the heads that joe is getting and for the money you cannot fail to be impressed by them. Even thought about modifying one with better bearings etc. But I can't resist having a go myself.

Next on the list for me is a clamp for fitting a ball head or gimbal head to the shelves that you find in bird hides. Using a tripod is so clumsy in them so have got an idea to use one of these quick clamps attached to a column that will be able to adjust for height to get the best position.
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Now this is an idea i had too. I can't find any solutions on the Internet so far either. One guy I saw had made what is effectively a modified g clamp with 3/8 screw thread attached to the top. This was attached to the window beam but the lens stuck out of the hide. This g clamp could have been modified to clamp a centre column to vary the height. I think manfrotto do a clamp that can be used with a centre column from their tripod range.

Great engineering by the way. I too would rather manufacture it myself but i got a gimbal head from amazon for £65 and its surprisingly good for the money. So far I've modified a frying pan as a ground pod. I think the major manufacturers are missing a trick here, there so many solutions everyone can see to problems they encounter but no solutions to purchase in the shops.if there are they are priced too high hence everyone tries to make it themselves.
 
I think that with long lenses from a hide it's inevitable that part of the lens will protrude through the opening. There are several clamps available ranging from £30-£90. Not a huge amount of money but I have limited use for one. Have got an idea that should work and cost no more than £10 -£15.

I like th frying pan idea by the way. That's a novel solution.

Regards
 
Congratulations on a great project, I think the cost of a self-made piece of kit is irrelevant. The satisfaction is priceless, especially when it works. Over the years I’ve made loads of stuff from pinhole cameras, slide copiers, ground pods from a bit of wood and a metal tent peg ( but never a frying pan ha ha.). In recent years I have suffered more and more with rheumatoid arthritis (hands and feet mainly) so I have had to adapt all sorts of stuff to allow me to continue with this great hobby / business of ours. I recently purchased a Fuji X10 after reading the thread started by DuncanDisorderly. The camera has a sweep panorama function that works really well. I had some success with it but struggled with the consistency of the sweep required to complete the 160/180/360 degrees needed by the cameras’ software. So initially I went back to the old tried and tested multi image and stitch method. Now for sometime I have had to use a walking stick, awkward when togging so I started using a monopod as a walking aide, quite a robust one with a tilt head for portraits, a bit of over kill for the X10. Then I remembered a freebie I had had from a mag subscription some years ago, I sorts it out, or at least the missus did. It’s basic but OK. It only has a fixed stud to screw the camera to, so usless for using the X10 in portrait orientation, which is what I needed for a decent pano. The crux of my post being I made a bracket to accommodate this. The fact I was mounting the camera on a monopod, I made the bracket so that the lens was as near to the point of rotation as I could get it without losing the ability to change the battery, card, or adjust the lens/camera. So far so good and the pod is OK as a walking stick.

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Thought I would post an update on my progress. Have now welded the 3 main parts together, etch primed and top coated them. Looks a bit better now with a bit of paint on it.

Regards
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Gaz J said:
Thought I would post an update on my progress. Have now welded the 3 main parts together, etch primed and top coated them. Looks a bit better now with a bit of paint on it.

Regards
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Excellent bit of kit, special price for TP members :-)
 
Looks great!
 
I don't particularly have an opinion homemade gear as I haven't made any, but what you've made here is hella awesome haha.

Nice one :D
 
A final update on the finished head. Taken me a little longer than I had hoped but I'm very happy with the way it has turned out.

Thanks for the kind comments and hopefully it will inspire others to have a go at making their own kit. Anyone that has a go at making anything and wants any advice, please feel free to get in touch.

Regards Gary

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